


I and Love and You

by PirateOwl



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Post-The Final Problem, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 17:18:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9833150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PirateOwl/pseuds/PirateOwl
Summary: Sherlock and Molly have a much needed conversation about the strange phone call in The Final Problem.





	

Molly looked up when the doorbell to her flat rang. Sherlock Holmes was standing on her stoop, his collar turned up against the wind, or possibly just because he liked it that way. She didn't want to answer, but it appeared he was going to stand at her door patiently until she answered. The sooner she answered, the sooner he would leave.

"Why are you here, Sherlock?" she asked wearily.

"Context," he replied quickly. "There is emotional context to everything we do." He was using the tone he normally reserved for solving cases. "I have recently been forcibly reminded that even the most logical actions have emotional context. And you deserve the context for the phone call from yesterday. It's quite a long story, but the short version was that I had reason to believe that your life was in danger unless I could get you to say those words. I apologize for what I put you through but I believed at the time that it was necessary."

"That makes no sense," Molly said. “What could _possibly_ make you think that was necessary?”

"May I come in? It is a rather long story."

Molly hesitated, but finally stepped aside. "Would you like some tea?" she asked.

"Yes. Thank you, Molly. That would be lovely."

"Greg came by last night with the bomb squad. He didn't seem to know exactly why, but he said better safe than sorry. They didn't find anything."

"That is not surprising," Sherlock admitted. And he laid it out for her, the full story. He told her about Eurus, and Redbeard, and the memories he had suppressed. He told her about visiting Sherrinford, and the tests Eurus ran them through. Their tea grew cold while she listened.

"In the next room, there was a coffin. She didn't say who it was for; we had to figure it out. It was the right height for someone five feet, four inches. It was too simple to be a child's coffin, so a woman's. The lid didn't have a name. It had... those words... written on it. We talked it through. I say 'we', but Mycroft doesn't know you well and couldn't really contribute. John and I worked it out. As soon as we realized who it was, Eurus told us she had rigged your flat with explosives. They would go off if I didn't get you to say the key phrase."

"But why? Why would she want me to say... that?"

"Because she wanted to see if you would, and how I would persuade you. We were her rats in a science experiment. If I had not believed that your life was in danger, I would never have..."

"I know," she said quickly.

"There were never any explosives to begin with. She admitted the truth after disconnecting the call. I should have known she was lying before. Of course she was. I would probably have seen through it if I had not let everything else distract me from the critical details."

He finished recounting the events, all of them, up to the point where Eurus was returned to Sherrinford.

"And that's all there is, as far as I know." Sherlock stood. "Case closed. John went home to his daughter and I came here."

Molly stood and walked with him to the door. "Thank you for telling me."

"You deserved the truth," he said, turning to go.

"I have just one question. We both know why it was hard for me to say it. Why was it so hard for you?"

He froze with his back to her. "Isn't it obvious?" he asked.

"Not to me," Molly said quietly.

Sherlock started walking away without turning back. "I've never said it before."

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a little over an hour, immediately after seeing the episode.


End file.
